


A Man Walks Into a Bar

by Piggletie



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 22:19:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18903766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piggletie/pseuds/Piggletie
Summary: In the prime time of cowboys, Ellie is just trying to mind his own business, but everything changes when Prue convinces him to follow her...





	A Man Walks Into a Bar

A dusk sky colored with rich blues and pinks entertains Ellie as he walks across the vast plain, weaving through the tall dry grass. He stops as he spots a healthy looking Mustang with rich dark brown hair a ways down the slanted hill. “My my,” he says to the open air, impressed not only with the color of the horse’s coat, but its tall nature and lean physique. “How beautiful are you, fella?” Approaching the horse, it looks at him once when he’s close and takes a few trots back, its muscles lean and strong underneath its dark brown hide, there’s a perfect white diamond on its forehead. Working slowly with the horse, Ellie is able to pet the beast, but just when Ellie pulls out his rope to lasso the horse and gets it around the creatures neck, it starts to whiney. Ellie does his best to keep the beast under control, but soon the creature starts to jump. It keeps jumping and neighing and Ellie can’t do a single thing to calm the poor horse down until it just stops. It stands on the punched up dirt calmly for a full second before a crude line of blood starts to pour from the creatures neck. In shock, Ellie steps back. The horses eyes are wide and blood is practically pouring out from its neck, but it shows no other signs of fear or discomfort. “Have mercy…” Ellie whispers.  
“There won’t be any of that, I can promise right now.” A sharp voice calls from behind him. He turns quickly to see a small woman with neat white hair posing with her hands up and fingers twisted in silly ways. Soft, green tendrils of light float around her hands in zentangle-like patterns as the horse continues to die. He takes a step towards the woman to get her to stop torturing the beautiful creature, but as soon as he takes a step towards her, she throws her hands down to her sides, the green light brightens and fades quickly away, and two hard thuds are heard from behind Ellie. The horse has been decapitated and its blood stains the dirt. A vast puddle quickly forms and the rage screams through Eladio’s veins. With nobody to blame but this white haired woman, he screams and charges towards her. The world around Ellie turns green, stuck in some sort of trance, all he can see are beautiful glimpses of the night sky and the stars in heaven. These images are so beautiful that they ease his rage. Stuck still in this sprinting position, the woman whispers to him, working her magic through his vision to force him to see three men, all in a row. Saddened by the departure of the lovely images of space, Ellie sighs.  
“Relax, darling,” She coos. “The void will return to you soon enough, for now, study these men, for they are the men that just killed your precious horse. Not I, but these three men.” Three very different men fly across his mind. One cocky looking, all in white, another short and rotund with a lazily groomed mustache, and the last looking slightly familiar. Something in the man’s face grabs his attention, almost breaking the trance. It was something in his facial hair, the strange way his white stubble corresponds with how the beard itself is cut, even more so that the man still has a head of brown hair. He’s seen this face before, but the white haired woman quickly changes the image to the dead horse, now just a pile of flesh. Rage returns to Ellie as images of the horse and its scared eyes flash in front of him. “They shot the poor thing in cold blood.” Violent images flash through Ellie’s mind of this false murder, clouding the truth and burying it deep behind all the new torments. Feeling the rage and energy coming off of this large man, she decides it’s time to lift her trance and, satisfied with her level of manipulation, looks Ellie in the eyes and holds his hardened face in her hands. “Let’s go take care of them, shall we?” Ellie nods and stands, now rigid and angry, not even noticing the real murdered horse lying just a few meters away. “By the way, my name is Prue. But it’s not like you’d care to know that at this point…” She was right. Ellie didn’t care, he barely even registers the name in his mind.  
With a snap of her fingers, a door appears in front of them. No walls or hinges to support it, just chipping white lead paint and an aged brass door knob. A smile quirks up onto Prue’s face as she reaches for the door knob and opens it. On the other side of the door is a wall of rain. Just now realizing the absurdity of this whole situation, Ellie stops and looks at the world around him. The sky is now pitch black, speckled with stars and the tall greyish grass sways at a snail pase. The sky through the door is a deep gray, shrouded in rain and fog, while the ground is almost equally as gray, surely stained with the tears of the locals for living in such a dreary place. Preparing himself for the heavy rain, Ellie steps through the door. It’s cold and hard, unlike anything he’s ever experienced before. He hears the sound of the door closing behind him, only to turn around and not find it there. “There’s no going back now.” Prue states. “Now I just need you to find them. They’re all here, I know that. But where, I cannot tell,” Ellie looks around at the single bar with lights on and the few shops surrounding a circular road. “Do you have a gun?” Prue asks. Ellie looks at her, every second weighing on him more and more, and shows her his pistol and six bullets. “Good, now when you find them, just shoot them. Don’t hesitate. It’ll only get harder if you hesitate.” Ellie looks down at the mud on his boots as Prue grabs his arm, but as soon as she does, he sees blood flow through the mud at his feet. Remembering the dead horse these men killed fills Ellie with enough anger to trudge through the mud.  
Outside the bar stood the first of the three men, clad in white. He was quickly tying his white horse to the fence so he could rush inside. The rain was never ending and thick, pounding on Ellie’s shoulders and back, a constant reminder of where he was and what he had to do. Through the grey air, the man and his horse are a white blob. Ellie was pulling out his gun. If not for the rain, he might’ve had to admit that he was crying. Ellie’s hands shake heavily when he pulls the gun up to the man. He tries his best to steady his hands, but the nerves are quickly too much and before Ellie can take any seconds of precaution, the man turns around.  
They just stare at each other, shock riddling the white man’s face. His mind finally catches up with him and Ellie pulls the trigger. Struck in the chest, dead center, the white clad man stumbles a step back. The bang of the gun still playing in Ellie’s mind. Like a second out of time it, ringing through his hands and ears, so loud he couldn’t hear the whimpers and grunts of the white horse. Looking at the sky, Ellie watches the rain drops fall directly onto his face. He places his gun back into its holster and watches as the after event unfold. Each raindrop falls individually and the man in white takes an eternity to fall down. From knees, to hands and knees, to rolling to his side. To dead. A dramatic, yet pitiful end. A long red thread now sews itself into the side of the man’s shirt, he lay with his eyes open on the muddy ground, twitching from the pain. If it wasn’t for the new mural of red chunks and accompanying crater on the white horse, Eladio would’ve taken it. Instead he takes one last look at the man on the ground, the sad looking horse, and the storm around him. Dripping from head to toe, feeling cold inside and out, Ellie walks into the bar.  
The room is small and barely lit, but many men liter the tables, all holding drinks or cards. Walking up to the bar and sitting next to Prue, Ellie takes a hard gulp of the three fingers of whiskey she ordered for him. She herself is nursing a drink with a small smile. “How’d it go?” She asks quietly. Ellie drops his head, growing more and more ashamed of the crime with every passing second.  
“One down, two to go.” He responds, then taking another big gulp of his drink. It burns and his throat feels as dry as sandpaper, but he welcomes the feeling tonight.  
“Good. Because lucky fellow number two is sitting right behind you,” Ellie turns his head to spot the bot bellied man with choppy facial hair, laughing heavily with a huge mug of beer held close to his face. Turning in his stool to face the man, he thinks of what to do. He looks around for the third man, but his light brown hair and light brown eyes are nowhere in this bar. Now comfortable with the fact that he could quickly kill this rotund man without scaring away his third victim, Ellie subtly pulls out his firearm, steadys his hand and lines up for the shot.  
“I’m gonna shoot this guy right now and I need you to get the door before I do because we need to leave before anyone else pulls their gun on me.” Ellie says to Prue. She gets the idea and starting walking for the door. With the slaughtered horse in mind, Ellie tries to channel enough anger to force him to pull the trigger. His whole body feels numb, save the souls of his feet, they burn with what could only be described as dread. The round man is still laughing and joking with his table mates, occasionally drinking from his massive cup. How could he be so happy just hours after taking a life? It made Ellie that much more ready to continue.  
The trigger clicks swiftly in Ellie’s hands and the bullet punches through its target with a familiar deafening pop. Everything stops; movement, conversation, time, life. All stopping, just to refocus on Ellie and his smoking gun. Anger and surprise riddle the face of every man in the room and all Ellie can do it sit still under their gaze. Someone in the back stands up and starts shouting at the gunslinger, but Ellie bolted out the door as soon as he heard the chair scrape the floor. Prue laughs wildly once the door has slammed behind her and the two stand in the mucky rain once again. Ellie looks into the bar and sees three men trying to hoist the blood soaked body out the back door. Tables are overturned and pools of blood spill over the floor all the way to the back of the small room. Disheartened by the crime he’s committed, Ellie starts walking away from the bar. Tears fill his eyes as he spots the white man, still lying in the mud, most likely frozen solid from the rain by now.  
“Hey!” A voice calls from somewhere in the rain. It wasn’t Prue, she was nowhere to be found, the timbre was too deep for her, this was someone new.  
“Hello?” Ellie calls out. Seeing the silhouette of a man running towards him through the thick rain. It gets closer and tries to distinguish who it could be. His question is easily answered once the man has stopped right in front of Ellie, a five gallon hat rests on his head, but he’s recognizable just the same.  
“I heard some gun shots from near the bar, I wanted to know what was going on but was too afraid that if I went in I’d get shot!” The man laughs, his light brown eyes somehow shining through the rain and night around them.\  
“That was a wise choice on your part, pal. But I’m afraid your life is gonna end now anyways,” Ellie says.  
“Woah, fella… What’ve I ever done to you?” The cowboy asks. For the third time, Ellie pulls out his gun and tries to steady his hand on the trigger, he pulls it up to the man.  
“You shot my horse.” Ellie says grimly and pulls the trigger hard. Not allowing any cold feet to change his mind. Unfortunately, the man lunged away from the bullet and now lies in the mud.  
“When?” The man screams, a confused look covers his face. Prue interrupts with a shout, suddenly appearing from nowhere.  
“Just do it!” Her fists are balled up tightly, she stands a little ways to Ellie’s left.  
“Woah, hey!” The cowboy starts, clearly frightened. “Not you again, look, lady, I’ll get you your money soon I just need some more-” Ellie watches as the man’s mouth disappears mid sentence. He clasps his hands over the space, eyes wide, and points to Prue who stands with her hand poised for a spell or trick of some sort. Ellie, extremely confused, turns the gun onto Prue and yells, “What in tarnation is going on here?” The man without a mouth tries to talk, but Prue speaks over him.  
“I can explain-”  
“You better. But first, I’m gonna need you to undo whatever you’ve done to this fella’s mouth.” Prue nods, putting her hands up and begins to cycle through the familiar shapes until small green patterns appear around the cowboy’s mouth. It comes back slowly, but once it’s fully back, he shine’s a bright smile. Ellie looks over at the man and says, “We need to talk, you hear?” The man nods and Ellie turns back to Prue only to find that she’s snapped her fingers and graced her face with a wide grin. The snap conjures an old door directly behind Prue and with a wave goodbye, the sorceress disappears to what seems to be a beach of some kind.  
“Well, partner, this sure has been a strange night for me, I’m gonna head off before an indian tries to scalp me!” The cowboy laughs, adjusting his five gallon hat before walking in the other direction.  
“Wait!” Ellie calls out. “What did you mean you owed her money?” Ellie whispers, as if she could hear him now. The man turns to face Ellie one last time, this time his face twisted in a smile and cocked eyebrow.  
“Well, that’s Prue LaRue. The strongest two-timing witch of the west. She lives out here and makes her money off of lying to simple minded folk trying the get them to commit the worst of crimes for her.” Ellie, finally loosening his grip of the gun, holserted it. Caught up in the thoughts of her that could have been manipulated for her benefit. Ellie shrugs his shoulders, drawing a blank.”Alright big guy, do you have any memories with this woman that seem out of place? One thing that seems wrong, maybe even implausible without her there?” Ellie thinks of the horse and how it died. How, for the past few hours, he had believed it had been the fault of three men he had never seen before.  
“She killed my horse.” He said grimly, “She killed my horse right in front of me and then convinced me it was you and two other men,” The tears started to well up in Ellie’s eyes, running through all that he’s done in the past few hours was catching up to him and his felt like he was about to explode.  
“Christ, brother. I’m sorry about that, but just know-hey! Where are you going?” The man calls after Ellie. He bolts away from the conversation, in hopes of sparing himself or the man the truth of the matter. That he killed two men tonight and it was entirely his fault.  
Dawn was on the horizon as Ellie grabbed a horse tied up to a communal fence, mounted it, and set off away from the sun. Hugging the horse tight, he told it to run fast and hard. It’s a beautiful creature, spotted black on white and black hair. So overwhelmed with emotions left over from broken trust and self loathing, Ellie doesn’t stop the horse when they come across the first state line, or the second. But once Ellie notices the difference in his surrounding, he tells the horse to stop. Here, there are many green trees. The small town Ellie can see has a bar, a restaurant, what looks to be an inn, and a lumber shop. Tear stains and all, Ellie ventures into the lumber shop for materials for a new house, believing he couldn’t return to where he was, there he’d have to face Prue and Ellie sure did not want to get involved with her ever again, so he settled on building an abode for himself and this stolen horse here on the edge of town where no one can bother him and he can bother only himself…  
It seemed that trouble had left Ellie. A whole year he spent building and living in his house without trouble of dismay. Getting a job at the local woodshop and finishing his house had helped him to create order in his life. One evening in late spring, simply enjoying the view of the vast lake sat right in front of his home, there’s a knock on the door.  
“Around back!” Ellie yells from his porch on the other side of the house.  
“What a lovely home you have, old friend,” Ellie stops and stares at the white haired woman. She stands in front of him, small and gentle looking, but he knows better than that.  
“I’m sorry, Miss, but I’m gonna have to ask you to leave,”  
“I can’t do that, Ellie,” she steps up onto the porch and towards him. “I’ve got business to take care of.” raising her hands in an offensive position, green beams float around the back of her head. Ellie steps off the porch and onto the sand at the bottom of his yard.  
“That’s not me anymore, I never wanted to be that way, now please just leave!” Ellie states to Prue, hoping it’ll get her to leave. But she only persists.  
“I know that isn’t who you are, but I want it to be. Ellie, you’re so powerful, you just refuse to acknowledge any of the power you command. You and me could do whatever we want, have whatever we want, and it’s all because of the muscle you carry. I put those ideas of the horse dying in your head. I put those murderous angers in your heart. I made you the best version of yourself, can’t you see that?” He knew what she was saying was true, but it didn’t have to be said. And she sure didn’t need to be here right now.  
“You need to leave this place. You’re not welcome here,” He said, balling his fists up, expecting a fight from this woman. She sees this gesture as a go-ahead to try and blast him right in the head with some magic, but Ellie dodges the ball of flames and it whizzes into the water behind him. Terror fills his bones, but he must follow through. “I don’t want to hurt you, just leave!”  
“No, Ellie. You’re destined for great things, my friend. You are destined to murder the world with me, I’m not giving that away.” She runs closer to him, aiming for a punch. Ellie catches her small fist in his large hand and she throws a hit at him with her free hand. The magic hitting him square in the jaw, he falls to the ground. Standing above him, Prue continues to drop magical hits to Ellie, he only has enough strength against them to grab her leg and tilt her balance, but it’s enough. Prue falls to the ground and Ellie stands, reaching his hand out for her to grab, a sign of forgiveness. She eyes the hand like it embodies evil, eventually grabbing it, but she then forces a pulse of energy through her hand into Ellie’s. The energy throws him into the lake and he stands quickly before Prue can get to him. Both standing in the water, Prue cycles through some small symbols hand motions and suddenly, her height is elevated and transparent green fists cover her own, big enough to fight Ellie in hand to hand combat with. He throws the first punch, hitting her on the cheek. Prue stumbles at the hit but delivers a painful shot right in at his stomach. The match, being as equal as it could be, lasts quite a while. Both getting offensive hits in left and right, losing strength and energy the entire time. After awhile, it’s clear Prue can barely keep up, she hasn’t learned how to hide her emotions while fighting so every thought she has is worn right on her face for Ellie to see. Right now, he sees that she has one more hit in her and then she’s going to fall to the ground. Just like he thought, Prue throws the punch but Ellie catches it, he hits her in the throat with the back of his free hand and she falls to her knees wheezing. As angry as he’s ever been and almost as tired, Ellie sinks down to one knee in front of her. One hand on her throat, he says.  
“Now leave. And never come back.” Her voice is but a whisper from beneath his hand.  
“I’ll never rest without you under my wing, Ellie. Just join me, I know you love to kill. Don’t deny yourself the pleasure…”  
“You’re right” Ellie says and thinks for a full minute. Debating over his idea, mulling over how his life would change if he just did it. Prue’s face is hopeful and her small hands are grabbing at Ellie’s large one, focused on restricting her air. “I do enjoy to kill, but that doesn’t mean I have to kill good people!” And with that, Ellie’s grip on her neck tightens. Prue attempts to start a spell, but she can’t, all the magic she can muster fades away before she can finish the spell. Thrashing her arms around in the water and punching Ellie in the face, her death is slow and ugly, until everything in her stops. Staring up at the night sky with a blank expression, Ellie lets her go. Standing up to go grab a flower from the flower bed he planted in front of his home, Ellie acknowledges the sky. The void, as Prue had called it not even a year ago. It was beautiful, sparkling white stars had been the center of his attention since she showed him the cosmos. The difference was, Ellie was satisfied with the serene view from his home. Placing the small daisy on the dead woman’s chest, he pushes her body out to the middle of the lake. There it will rest and hopefully, both him and Prue can finally get some rest.


End file.
